Newspaper-file.



No. 645,380. Patentd Mar. [3, I900.

' J. AHRENDS.

NEWSPAPER 'FILE.

(Application filed Mar. 4, 1899.)

2 Sheet sSheet I.-

(No Model.)

No. 645,380. PatentedAMaL I3, 1900.,

J. A-HBENDS:

NEWSPAPER FILE.

(A lie n filed. Mar. 4, 1899.)

' UNITED STATES PATENT rrrcs.

JOHN AHRENDS, OF DEARBORN COUNTY, INDIANA.

NEWSPAPER-FILE.

$PECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 645,380, dated March 13, 1900. hp pllcation filed March 4, 1899. send No. 707,770. (No model.)

To aZ-Z whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN AHRENDS, a citizen of the United States,residing in the county of Dearborn (post-office, Sun man) and State of Indiana, have invented a new and useful Newspaper-File, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to newspaper-files; and the object of the invention is to provide a simple and inexpensive device of this character upon which newspapers, magazines, and the like can be placed and firmly held while being read. The device may be maintained in its wide-open position and held in one hand, leaving the other hand free, and can be suspended froma hook or other support when not in use.

The newspaper-file includes, essentially, two leaves or flaps, a strip intermediate and hinged, respectively, to the flaps, and independent devices for locking the leaves or flaps in their open and closed positions, respectively, and the two leaves and strip are adapted to be in alinement when the file is open, and they are locked in such position by a pivoted hasp on one of the leaves adapted to engage the other leaf, the end of the hasp being secured in proper position by a suitable keeper. One of the leaves preferably carries a bail adapted to engage over the other leaf and to fit in a notch or groove in the hasp, thereby to lock the leaves in their closed position, and the file is provided with a hook by which it can be suspended from a projection or other like device.

With these ends in view the invention consists in the novel combination of elements and in the construction and arrangement of parts, which will be hereinafter fully described and claimed.

To enable others to understand the invention, Ihave illustrated the preferred embodiment thereof in the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 is an under-side perspective view of a newspaper-file constructed in accordance with my invention and showing the same open. Fig. 2 is a face view of the file open. Fig. 3 is an under-side perspective view of the same closed. Fig. dis a cross-section on the line {i 4,

Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a perspective view, upon an enlarged scale, showing a modified means of holding the hasp in a position to lock the two flaps of the device open.

Like characters denote like and corresponding parts in each of the several figures of the drawings.

The newspaper-file constituting the present invention includes in its construction the leaves or flaps A and B, preferably made of wood or other like material and ordinarily of rectangular shape, and an intermediate strip 0 of the same length as the leaves A and B and hinged to both of said parts, as at 2, 3, and 4, such a construction permitting the separation of the leaves when folded by a space slightly exceeding the width of the strip,

- whereby the file can comfortably retain a comparatively-large amount of reading matter. The upper and lower edges of the. two leaves and the strip 0 are protected by the metal strips 5 and 6, which are secured to the inner faces of these parts, and the said metal strips are bent over the upper and lower edges of the two leaves and strip, thereby to protect the same from wear. The hinges joining the outer leaves A and B and the intermediate strip 0 may be of any suitable construction capable of permitting the proper folding and unfolding movement of said leaves, and the upper and lower hinges are connected, respectively, with the metal reinforcing-strips 5 and 6.

The leaf or flap A is provided with a ledge or flange 7, extending the entire length of the same and against which the edges of the news papers upon the file can be placed, said newspapers being held in position by clips, as S and 9, of resilient material, secured at proper pointsto the upper side of the ledge or flange 7 and extending inward therefrom.

The leaves are held in their open position by a hasp, as 10, pivoted, as at 12, to the leaf A, near the middle of the latter, and the free end of said hasp being flattened on its upper surface, so as to engage the fiat lower face of the leaf B, as indicated clearly in Fig. 1, the advancing motion of the hasp being limited by the stop 1a of resilient material, the end of which is secured to the block 15, fastened to the under side of the leaf B. The oppo site motion of the hasp is limited by the stop or abutment 16, fixed to the underside of the leaf A and located in the path of the hasp and adapted to engage the latter when said hasp has reached its position shown in Fig. 2 and in parallelism with the opposite edges of the leaves A and 13.

The leaf A is provided upon the underside thereof with a handle 17, lying across the strip 0 and leaf B, thereby to aid in holding the leaves open, and this handle 17 has a reduced portion 17, the hasp having a similarly-reduced portion 10, thereby producing spaces between the said parts, into which the fingers can be thrust to hold the file in a reading position, and said file can be thus held with one hand, thereby leaving the other entirely free. The two sections of the file are held closed by the bail 18, which may be made of wire and the ends of which can be sprung into bearingopenings 19 and 20, respectively, formed in the upper and lower edges, respectively, of the leaf B, said bail being made sufficiently wide to overlap the leaf A.

The hasp 10, at a point near the pivot thereof, has the elongated groove or channel 21, which when said hasp is in contact with the abutment 16 is in line with the groove 22 on the handle 17. The file being folded or closed, as shown in Fig. 3, and it being desired to use the same, the bail will be lifted out of the receiving-grooves 21 and 22 in the hasp 10 and handle 17, respectively, and will be swung clear of the leaf A, so that said leaves can be opened flat. WVhen the two leaves are opened, the hasp 10 is moved about its center and swung across and into frictional engagement with the under side of the leaf B, and when said hasp has reached the proper locking position its further movement will be prevented by the resilient or spring stop 14. To unfold the file from the position in which it is shown in Fig. 1, it is simply necessary to move the hasp out of engagement with the leaf B, so that the two leaves can be folded toward each other, and to lock or hold them in folded position the bail 18 will be swung over the leaf A and sprung into the grooves 21 and 22.

For the purpose of preventing the outward movement of the bail 18 the leaf B near its outer corner is provided with the oppositelydisposed stops 23 and 24, adapted to be engaged by said bail when the latter has reached the proper position. These stops consist of fiat lugs or ears in the plane of the leaf B, and. they serve also to support papers which are longer than said leaf.

The leaf B is provided along its outer edge with a downwardly-disposed flange or ledge 25, to which the upper and lower sections 26 and 27 of the clip D are secured, said clip being substantially rectangular in shape and being of resilient material, so as to hold writing materials against the under face of the leaf 0, and the cross-piece 27 of the clip is provided with a finger-piece 28, by which said one free, and it can be locked in its folded position and can be also hung up out of the way when not in use and can also carry a supply of Writing material without danger of the latter being lost.

In Fig. 5 I have represented a modified form of keeper for the hasp 10, and the same is represented as consisting of a spring-finger 40, secured to the handle 1'7 within the aperture 17" in said handle and having a hook or shoulder 41 at its free end to engage the catch 42, secured to the under side of the hasp 10 near the pivot 12 thereof. The free end of the spring-finger40 is located under the catch 42, and it Will be evident that when 'it is in the position illustrated by Fig. 5 the hasp 10 will limit its further movement.

Changes in the form, proportion, size, and the minor details of construction within the scope of the appended claims maybe resorted to without departing from the spirit or sacrificing any of the advantages of this invention.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is- I Y 1. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, a strip located between said leaves, hinges connecting the strip and leaves respectively, and a hasp on one of the leaves adapted to engage the other leaf and serving to hold both leaves open, substantially as described.

2. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, a strip located between said leaves, hinges connecting the strip and leaves respectively, a hasp on one of the leaves adapted to engage the other leaf thereby to lock said leaves open, and an independent device for locking said leaves closed, substantially as described.

3. Adevice of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, a strip located between and hinged to said leaves, a hasp carried by one of the leaves and having a notch or groove, and said hasp being adapted to engage the other leaf to lock both of them open, a bail carried by said other leaf, and adapted to be sprung into the notch or groove in the hasp, and means for limiting the motion of said hasp, substantially as described.

4. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, astrip intermediate of and hinged to said leaves, a hasp on one of the leaves and adapted to engage the other leaf and said hasp having a cut-away portion, a handle secured to that leaf which carries the hasp and adapted to lap over the other leaf and also having a cut-away portion, a bail carried by one of the leaves and adapted to IIO engage over the other leaf, and to fit in notches in the hasp and handle respectively, substantially as described.

5. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, a strip intermediate of and hinged to said leaves, a hasp on one of the leaves and adapted to engage the other leaf and said hasp having a cut-away portion, a handle secured to that leaf. which carries the hasp and adapted to lap over the other leaf and also having a cut-away portion, a bail carried by one of the leaves and adapted to engage over the other leaf, and to fit in notches in the hasp and handle respectively, and stops secured to that leaf which carries the bail for limiting the movement of said bail, substantially as described.

6. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves,astrip intermediate of and hinged to said leaves, a hasp on one of the leaves and adapted to engage the other leaf and said hasp having a cut-away portion, a handle secured to that leaf which carries the hasp and adapted to lap over the other leaf and also having a cut-away portion, a bail carried by one of the leaves and adapted to engage over the other leaf, and to fit in notches in the hasp and handle respectively, stops secured to that leaf which carries the bail for limiting the movement of said bail, a flange extending along the outer edge of one of the leaves, and clips secured to said flange and projecting inwardly therefrom, substantially as described.

7. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves, a strip intermediate of and hinged to said leaves, a hasp on one of the leaves and adapted to engage the other leaf and said hasp having a cut-away portion, a handle secured to that leaf which carries the hasp and adapted to lap over the other leaf and also having a cut-away portion, a bail carried by one of the leaves and adapted to engage over the other leaf, and to fit in notches in the hasp and handle respectively, stops secured to that leaf which carries the bail for limit-ing the movement of said bail, a-flange extending along the outer edge of one of the leaves, clips secured to said flange and projecting inwardly therefrom, a second flange secured to the other leaf and projecting in a direction opposite to the first-mentioned flange, and a spring-clip secured to said lastmentioned flange and adapted to hold writing materials upon the under side of the device, substantially as described. 7

8. A device of the class specified, consisting of two leaves one of which is provided with a hook and both of which have metal reinforcing-strips along the upper and lower edges thereof, a strip located between and hinged to said leaves, a hasp on one of the leaves adapted to frictionally engage the other thereby to lock the leaves open, a handle secured to that leaf which carries the hasp, stops for limiting the movementof the hasp, a bail secured to said other leaf and adapted to be sprung into notches in the hasp and handle respectively, substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN AHRENDS. Witnesses:

J OHN L. WEBER, FREDRIOK G. WALTER, 

